Author Topic: Power Up: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories  (Read 1887 times)

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Offline cannedcream

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Power Up: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
« on: August 06, 2011, 11:07:25 PM »
THE STORY

A unique retelling of the series's first game; Harry Mason is driving through the town of Silent Hill when his car skids off the road and crashes. When Harry comes to, he finds his little girl is gone. Running out into the snow, the frantic father goes searching for his lost little girl, and runs into the warped hell that has become the sleepy little town of Silent Hill.

While familiar to the opening of the first Silent Hill, this is where Shattered Memories diverts off from the original plot. The first thing players will notice is that the game is set in the dead of winter during a terrible snowstorm, coating the entire city with ice and snow. While mostly used as decoration and as means of directing the player down specific paths, the cold weather soon intertwines into the story almost becoming its own character.

Harry looking for his lost daughter is not the only tale being woven. At the same time players are treated to a first-person view of a therapy session in process; an interesting but seemingly unrelated event up until the very end.



THE GAMEPLAY

As anyone who has taken a passing glace at SH:SM might know, the game promotes a psychological mechanic that “plays you as much as you play it”. The claim being that throughout your experience the game is watching the moves you make and warping the game to your unique psychological profile. Sometimes the events that are being used for grading are obvious like in the theory session, other times they are quite well hidden; like what items you look at, for how long, and in what order for example. While a very interesting mechanic, and a clever one at that, the promise as a whole falls rather flat. Generally all that really happens is changing what style of monster you’ll face, what character models you’ll see, and what ending you’ll get. At its best the system is a novelty that does little to goad you into a second playthough.

As a Wii title, you can bet that there is plenty of time you’ll be wiggling the joystick around. Most of your time is used controlling your flashlight, which is very responsive and really helps to add a level of dread, or at least it would if it weren’t painfully obvious when and were monsters will appear. Throughout certain sections of the game the world around you will freeze completely over and the monsters will appear, so as long as everything is thawed, you know you’re completely safe.

And speaking of the monster sections, this is where Shattered Memories falls completely flat. You will never be provided with a weapon of any kind, at best you’ll pick up a flare or two to ward off the monsters, but your only real option is to run, knocking over objects in your path to slow down your procures. Now, this in itself would be fine if you knew just where the hell you were supposed to go. And the only way to find that out is to go to your phone, move to the map menu, open it, and search around. While annoying, this wouldn’t be too big of a problem if the game paused during this section. It doesn’t. Trying to check where you are and where you’re supposed to go is only going to get you caught, meaning you’re going to spend a lot of time running around aimlessly hoping that the next door you take is the right one.

Funnily enough, this is also where the motion controls are at their worst. Not only does Harry turn like a tank, but whenever you are grabbed, you have to throw both controllers in the direction you’re being grabbed on; which is not always responsive, meaning that getting grabbed by one monster only lets a second grab you, then a third. And the then you’re dead. Not that dying has any real consequences, you’re just thrown back to the starting point and forced to run again. But maybe this is a blessing considering how often you’re going to die, otherwise you’d never get through the game.

Now, maybe you’re wondering if this game makes up for its lack of combat with challenging puzzles. The answer is no. ‘Simplistic’ is the only word that can be used here, and even that is being generous. The answer to most puzzles is often right in the same room as you, and those that aren’t are so painfully spelled out that it almost feels like the game is insulting you. Considering the low ‘difficulty’ perhaps it’s fitting that your only reward is moving on to the next area or a memento that does nothing. (No, literally they do nothing. Even the game itself goes out of its way to make you aware of their uselessness, almost like an apology.)



THE AUDIO/VISUALS

The Wii has never been known to be a graphical powerhouse, and SH:SM is not doing anything to push that envelope. The character models are rather good and the environments passable. This is about all that can be said. Similarly, the audio works well with the game, the music is quite eerie and sets the tone nicely. One neat trick is that there are several phone numbers scattered throughout the game that Harry can call and all of the audio comes out of the controller, making you hold it up to your ear like a real phone. Again; another neat novelty without any real substance, and the cheap, tinny quality from the speaker doesn’t really help much.



THE BOTTOM LINE

All in all Shattered Memories should be commended for doing what a revisit is supposed to do: it takes the core of a much beloved game and offers a new, fresh direction for it to go in to. However, problems with the controls and a real lack of an interesting hook will leave all but the most die-hard Silent Hill fans annoyed, and even those few may be left wanting.

If you’re a true fan of Silent Hill, then Shattered Memories might be worth your time, if only for the novelty of it all and getting your own personalized psychological evaluation at the end (mine was actually quite on-target), but after a single play, you’ll be hard-pressed to want to take this trip again.



THE REPORT

SKIP/RENT/BUY

1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10
« Last Edit: August 09, 2011, 09:26:29 AM by cannedcream »
It's summertime, and you know what that means. Gonna head down to the beach, gonna do some beachy things. It's summertime, feels just right. Gonna gather all my friends and we'll party through the night. It's summer time lo-uh-uh-uhvin', lovin' in the summertime.

Offline RobotNixon

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Re: Power Up: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
« Reply #1 on: August 07, 2011, 02:16:31 AM »
MASSIVE SPOILER:
Spoiler for Hiden:
Harry was dead the whole time.